Shiro Kashiba owns sushi in this city, has done for nigh on 50 years, and now at last in a worthy space: the chewy center of Pike Place Market, strikingly beautified with birch branches and distinguished by smooth service. While in many ways the master’s simply doing what he’s forever done—buying his own fish (“Look for clear eyes! Red gizzard!”), delivering stunning omakase (with precise orders on how to eat it), reprising the standbys (the poke is here, as is the shiitake geoduck and the indescribable sake-breathing black cod), and drawing a crowd (arrive by 4pm for a seat at the sushi bar; Shiro’s at the south end)—the bracing purity of his Tokyo-style sushi continues to startle. Taste how sweet the fish, even the uni; see how little rice he uses for nigiri; watch how few times he touches a given piece of fish. Almost as fun as watching him is watching diners watch him.

Truth is, Seattle has easily twice this number of genuinely extraordinary restaurants. But here, including this year’s new standouts, are the most vivid, gracious, straight-up incredible destinations in town.